“南方历史的负担”:奥康纳与“他者化”的南方性

“The Burden of Southern History”:Flannery O'Connor and Otherized Southernness

一直以来,评论界给弗兰纳里·奥康纳贴上的“南方”作家标签掩盖了作者对“南方性”的反思与阐释,有关南方性含义和来源的讨论亦层出不穷。鉴于此,本文首先试图对南方性进行“谱系学”式的梳理,聚焦于南方性的“他者”意蕴,并认为奥康纳觉察到且排斥非南方人为南方性强加的他性内涵。其次以20世纪50年代南方的具体社会历史背景为坚实依托,通过细读《鹧鸪镇的节日》和《临终遇敌》,指出作家虽看似反对南方小镇排斥异己的集体无意识,但实际上批评了年轻一代为摆脱他者身份、回归美国标准而忽视家族传承和否认南方文化历史的行为,同时认为奥康纳表达了对南方历史沦为庸俗文化表征和盈利手段的担忧。

For a long time,the label of“American Southern writer”on Flannery O'Connor has concealed her reflection on and representation of“Southernness”.Given the fact that the discussion about the meaning and origin of Southernness has been rich,it is necessary to do a genealogical study on its otherization in the literary history.O'Connor recognizes and refuses the otherness imposed on Southernness by non-Southern people.Then,through both a solid basis of the historical background of the American South in 1950s and a close reading of two short stories,namely The Partridge Festival and A Late Encounter of the Enemy,it is found out that instead of opposing the“collective unconscious”of Southern towns in terms of refusing different opinions,in fact,the writer criticizes the young generation's neglection of filial heritage and negation of the Southern culture and history in their getting rid of the identity as the“other”and becoming“standard”American.Meanwhile,O'Connor is deeply concerned about the fate of Southern history of being reduced to the kitsch and a means of profiting.